Medical devices such as cardiac stimulators and neurological stimulators are often constructed of two halves brought together during manufacturing to form a casing that encloses electrical circuitry. Considering that a medical device is in contact with the patient, and in many cases implanted into the patient's body, a biocompatible material is usually chosen for the casing halves. The biocompatible material that is commonly chosen is titanium or a titanium alloy. The recharging of medical devices, particularly implanted ones, through inductive coupling techniques has lead to a greater demand for titanium alloy casings.
Forming the casing halves from a material such as titanium or especially a titanium alloy presents many challenges. Conventionally, titanium casing halves are formed using a hard tool and die process. This process requires the manufacturing of the tooling itself which can take a significant amount of time and present significant costs to the manufacturer. Therefore, customization of appearance, feel, and the like on a small scale is not possible using conventional forming because the production of customized tooling is infeasible.
Furthermore, with the emergence of titanium alloys as a popular choice for casings where recharging will be expected, the problems are greater. With titanium alloys, the lack of customization continues to be a consequence of using conventional forming techniques. Additionally, titanium alloys are notoriously difficult to form into even a standard casing half using conventional forming processes. As a result, the efficiency of manufacturing is reduced to even less than that achieved using pure titanium.